Ah, the settlement. The best play in the big corporation’s book. See, here’s the deal. They get sued by a class of current and former customers. The corporation claims no wrongdoing, and the battle protracts a bit. Some, as in this case, go to court. But at some point, it makes fiscal sense for the corporation to ante up a settlement, as it would amount to less than what they’d pay in legal fees over the course of trial. Plus, there’s always the chance that they lose and become liable for even more. This appears to be what happened in a Verizon early termination fees suit, which they settled for $21 million.
Verizon spokesman Jim Gerace claims that the suit was a “distraction,” and that they needed to quickly resolve it and move on. Nowhere did he admit any wrongdoing on the part of Verizon. This brings to light a point about class action suits against corporations, and in particular cell carriers. Consumers tend to want justice. Many of us, as Americans, hold justice as an ideal. There is a small contingency, though, that wishes to see the company admit wrongdoing, or, failing that, to be proven wrong by a jury. However, this is certainly a minority. Most consumer just want justice served. Which, in this case, amounts to the settlement. It’s tough to argue which is right. As an ideal, one might want to see the company be proven wrong in some way. That seems like a prideful sentiment, though. In the end, the suit is about the customers losing money, and the settlement represents them recouping those lost funds. So isn’t that justice enough? The members of this class seem to think so. Verizon might think it got off fairly easy by not being proven wrong or having to admit any wrongdoing. But they ponied up what the customers were looking for. And in the end, that’s what matters.`
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